


The Second Day of First Grade

by wneleh



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Kidfic, first grade, prompt: thunderstorm, rhinksummerficathon2k16
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-07-25 09:58:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7528342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wneleh/pseuds/wneleh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Link remembers everything about the first day of first grade; Rhett wishes he could forget the second.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Second Day of First Grade

**Author's Note:**

> Rhett, Link, and Ms. Locklear are real, but nobody else is.

Rhett’s got Albert Hammond’s “It Never Rains In Southern California” stuck in his head, except he doesn’t know it’s by Albert Hammond, and also he only knows that one line. He’s hum-singing it over and over, and Link, who’s driving (or, rather, waiting for the vehicle immediately ahead of them to creep forward, so that they can do likewise) wants to be annoyed, but he also appreciates a good dose of irony: today, it’s raining in Southern California.

“At least it’s not going to thunder,” Rhett comments, and Link nods. “Though it would relieve the boredom,” Link says.

“You always did like storms,” Rhett says, and Link isn’t sure whether that’s true or not. He can remember being terrified of them when he was very young, of running from the trailer they lived in to his grandparents’ house holding his mother’s hand. Or maybe she was carrying him, though he has no recollection of ever having been carried by anyone. 

It’s his most distinct memory tied to that trailer on his grandparents’ property. They hadn’t lived there long, maybe for a year between his parents’ divorce and his mom marrying Jimmy, who’d already had the house in Buies Creek. He wonders whatever happened to it, how long his grandparents kept it. He doesn’t remember it being around, and he isn’t even quite sure where on the property they’d set it up. Odd that he’s never thought about that before. 

Rhett’s thinking about his own sons, growing up in a place it rarely rains, hardly ever thunders, and never storms like in the South. Maybe he should make sure they get a few weeks with the grandparents this spring or summer during storm season. 

Because his first storm, or at least the first he remembers, after moving from Thousand Oaks to North Carolina, was horrible, and he wants the boys to be with him or Jessie when they encounter theirs. Especially Shepherd; Locke might remember real storms, come to think.

“What was your first thunderstorm in North Carolina like?” Link asks as he edges the car forward.

“You don’t remember?” Rhett asks, astounded, the small but tight knot of shame around those hours – minutes, actually – loosening. He hadn’t even realized it was still there. “Second day of first grade?”

Link tries to think back. His memories of first grade are like those of the trailer, even though he was much older – only extant where reinforced by future conversation. His mom’s talked about how much the trailer would rock in the wind, so he remembers fleeing it. They’ve told the story of the first day of first grade so often that he could draw it – Rhett showing him the naughty word he’d written in Magic Marker on the table (though the precise word changes; and sometimes it’s a desk, not a table), Link adding a second word next to it, Ms. Locklear catching them and saying, “No recess for you boys,” and then them coloring side by side. Rhett’s said that he was put off by how precise, how in-the-lines, Link’s coloring was, but in Link’s mind’s eye they’re both turning their mythical beasts into things of beauty.

Link has no memories of the day after. “What happened?”

\- - - - -

The afternoon weather forecast called for thunderstorms, maybe even hail, maybe worse, and some of the mothers cluster around Ms. Locklear, still holding GI Joe and Barbie lunch boxes, asking her questions, seeking reassurance that this young woman from out of town knows what she’s doing with a classroom of first and second graders. 

Not Link’s mama, she has to get to work. Link wants to catch her eye and ask please can she come get him if there’s a thunderstorm? Or his babysitter, that would be fine. 

Or not even take him home, just sit with him until the storm is over.

But Link’s mama doesn’t look his way, and he’s too scared of looking like a chicken to call out.

Rhett just wishes his mama would leave, because the sooner she leaves the sooner they’re going to start SRA maybe, and he wants to show the kids, but especially that boy Link he had to spend recess inside with yesterday, that he’s already in the Blue section, because the school system in California is ‘miles ahead.’ It kind of bothers him that Link could read the words Rhett was writing on the table; and that the boy added some of his own, and had even told him that poop had two ‘o’s, that if he just put in the one o it was ‘pop’, like soda. 

Rhett had said that his dad would think it was funny if he wrote ‘pop’, but actually he thinks he’d get in trouble, maybe worse than with cuss words, because he’d be ‘dragging me in to your escapades.’ Link didn’t tell him that he had two daddies and neither of them liked being called ‘pop’; ‘pop pop’ was granddad.

Mollified and assured by Ms. Locklear’s insistence that the school had plans for every contingency, and that, anyhow, tornadoes are rare in their part of the state, the mothers leave. But instead of SRA they start the school day with handwriting practice, which neither Rhett nor Link much like; Rhett wants to show off what he’s good at, not spend precious school time on stuff he doesn’t know and won’t look awesome doing; and Link thinks his handwriting is passably okay for his current needs, what he really wants to learn is more words, so that he can write down thoughts and things that are important, not just the cuss words his step sister has taught him for the purpose of getting him in trouble. 

After the entire class finishes up copying the letters Ms. Locklear has written on the board, the second graders work on writing sentences about their summer vacations while the first graders have tell-a-story time on the rug. Rhett waves his hand until Ms. Locklear calls on him, then tells the class all about their house in California and the huge truck which moved everything from there to here, which somehow beat them to Buies Creek. A lot of kids have questions, but Link keeps his hand down because moving across country sounds horrible and he doesn’t want to think about it.

After Gilly Stanley asks whether Rhett failed first grade in California and that’s why he’s so tall, Ms. Locklear says it’s time for snack.

While they’re getting their snacks from their lunch boxes, Link tells Gilly that Rhett can read, or at least read and write cuss words, so he’s probably too smart to have failed first grade. Gilly isn’t impressed, and says that this actually supports her theory that Rhett should be in second grade, or maybe even third. 

Link wants to sit with Calvin Peters during snack because yesterday Calvin could jump the farthest during recess, but Calvin is being made to still next to Ms. Locklear, offense unknown, so Link sits with a bunch of girls who were in afternoon kindergarten with him last spring. He likes the girls; they’re less messy than boys, and Link really prefers not to wear his food, or be around people for whom food wearing is a point of pride. The girls, or at least the girls at the Penguin Table, feel similarly about each other and Link.

Link only likes stick pretzels for morning snack, but his mother has given him the folded kind, which Link is pretty sure are the remains of dead fairy people, and are not something he would ever eat. Gilly Stanley has stick pretzels, though, and they work out a trade. 

Rhett’s sitting at the Penguin Table as well, because he likes to be near girls; and so he sees the trade go down. In kindergarten in California they weren’t allowed to trade food because of allergies. Between yesterday and this, and the all-girl posse, Rhett is impressed.

After snack they go outside and run around for a while. Rhett quickly establishes that he’s the best tetherball player in Ms. Locklear’s class, even including the second graders. Link doesn’t see the point in playing with a ball that has no free will; and besides he got hit in the nose with the tetherball last year, and he’s holding a grudge. 

After snack they go through the science and math exploration stations, which Ms. Locklear fears might be too advanced for the first graders and too simple for the second graders; but she’s supposed to be getting an aide soon, so it might be all right. She just needs something to keep half the class busy while she does lessons with the other half. Link thinks they look like fun, but what he really wants to do is read books about weather; weather and trains, and he’s not sure how the stations will get him there. 

Rhett’s mother reads to him, or works with him on ‘readiness’ skills, or math facts, every day, and he already knows a little about everything the stations are introducing. He wants to go back outside and practice jumping, because apparently this is a thing that the boys here keep track of. In California they jumped OFF of things, and, while this was competitive, the rules were more loose.

They gather their lunch boxes and file down to the multipurpose room for lunch, then have recess, which nobody has to stay in for today. Rhett quietly goes to the side of the playground and practices jumping where nobody can see him; nobody except that boy Link, who’s looking at something far away. “Reckon it’s going to storm, just like mama said,” he says, talking like a coyboy.

Ms. Locklear and another woman come and talk with Link, and he’s saying words Rhett doesn’t know and is moving his hands like he’s speaking sign language or something. Rhett knows the sign language alphabet and wonders if Link knows how to fingerspell ‘poop’.

Then Ms. Locklear calls them all inside, and they go back to the tables, but they only stay there a few minutes. “Okay, class, we’re going to practice what we do when there’s a big, big storm,” says Ms. Locklear. “Everyone empty their hands. Let me see your empty hands. Good! Okay, everyone Stand Up. Good job! Okay, follow me out into the hall. We’re going to sit in the hallway, won’t that be fun!”

Link walks past him and whispers, “It’s not really a practice. I think there’s a tornado watch. That sky was looking mighty green at recess.”

Fortunately, the full meaning of this is lost on Rhett.

The hall has not just their class in it but other classes as well, but Rhett doesn’t see his brother Cole. He starts to walk towards where he thinks Cole’s classroom is but Ms. Locklear grabs hold of his shoulder and tells him to stay.

This starts to feel like an earthquake drill gone sideways, and Rhett starts to tell Ms. Locklear that they’re supposed to look for THESE architectural features and sit THIS way, but she’s not listening. “Tell this to Link, he likes science,” she says. “Link, please help Rhett sit down.”

“I think maybe you need medication,” says Link. “For your ADHD.”

“I don’t have ADHD!” Rhett exclaims.

“Prove it,” says Link. “Follow me and no backtalk.”

Link leads them to a spot among the other kids in their class. “Sit down and be quiet,” he says, “and I’ll maybe teach you some new cuss words.”

Realizing this is probably the best offer he’s going to get, Rhett sits with Link against the wall. Then three things happen all at once. There’s a flash of light from outside so bright it makes the hallway look white for a moment. Then there’s a bang, like fireworks but really close; and then everything is dark.

And the hallway is very, very quiet. 

And then there’s more banging, and it sounds like someone is dropping marbles on the roof, and there are more flashes of light, and, now, there are sirens, and some of the children are crying and calling for their mamas.

Rhett wonders if that will actually work. “Mama?” he calls, but he can’t make his voice very loud, then can’t draw the breath to try again, and that’s the scariest thing of all.

Link had only been joking about the ADHD meds, but now wishes he’d been a little nicer, because Rhett really seems scared. He shakes Rhett’s knee. “Don’t go calling for your mama,” he says. “Do you want to be the giant boy who wants his mama?”

“But,” Rhett gasps, “I want her.”

“Yeah, what for? I mean” – flash, crash – “if my mama was here she’d hold my hand, but” rumble, rumble, boom “she might get blown away getting here!” 

“But I’m scared.”

“My step-dad says that, if you can see the lightning, it’s too late for it to kill you.”

“That doesn’t mean the next one won’t get me.”

“Well no use worrying about what you can’t see,” says Link.

There was something deeply wrong with this reasoning, and Rhett thinks maybe he’ll work out what later.

“Ass,” says Link, “is spelled a-s-s.”

“I know that,” says Rhett, lying.

“’Butt’ is ‘b-u-t-t’. And the great thing about ‘butt’ is that you can just write ‘but’ and people don’t know you mean the type that means ‘bottom’.”

“Those aren’t really bad words,” says Rhett. “I know how to spell f…”

“Any fool who can spell duck can spell that one,” says Link. “But I think we’d get in big trouble if we spread it around.”

“How’d you get so smart?” Rhett asks, and Link shrugs because he’s wondered that himself.

Link knows a lot of cuss words. He tells Rhett one for every letter in the alphabet, though he stretches the definition of ‘cuss word’ for a few of them, and makes a few completely up, like ‘vop’ and ‘glin.’ It works amazingly well; by ‘hell’ Rhett has stopped crying, and when Link spells poop with seventeen ‘o’s Rhett cracks up and starts putting o’s in other words as well; like, ‘shit’ is ‘shioooot’.

\- - - - -

After the storm, Ms. Locklear gives Link five gold stars for his writing book, which he places on the front cover in a star pattern. He later doesn’t think much about how or why he got them, just remembers the feeling of pride that came with his teacher giving him an entire row of stars and telling him he can put them anywhere he wants except the tables or his chair.

It’s a while before Rhett is much more than ‘the new kid who can read’ to Link; Link doesn’t pay him much special attention until Rhett bests Calvin Peters at jumping, both standing still and running. 

But Rhett remembers what happened, turns it over in his mind a lot the next week. Link had saved him from classwide embarrassment, not to mention made the storm even kind of fun, but still Link himself knows that Rhett had called for his mama, or started to at least.

“It was like you were blackmailing me, only you had no idea it was happening,” Rhett tells Link thirty years later, as Link guides the car through their stop-and-go, rain-hindered commute. “I tried to avoid you for a week or two, but there was no place to go. I tried to get some dirt on you, but you just didn’t care about the right stuff.”

“Well thank God for that,” says Link.

“And I never thanked you,” says Rhett.

“Well, you’re welcome anyway.”

* * * THE END * * *

**Author's Note:**

> So, third person omniscient POV. Did it work?


End file.
